Thoughtful Thoughts - Why Everett
Everything that year felt like opportunity.
My wife and I moved to the Delta Neighborhood of North Everett in June 2015. We bought our first home. We had a fenced back yard and a plastic blue kiddie pool filled with floating toys. Sunbeams lit our hardwood floors.
I fell in love with the area. Delta is in the far northwest corner of the city. It slopes into a river and wetlands at the edge of the peninsula.
Our neighbor to the north handed me raspberries over the fence. Our neighbor to the south traded me a kohlrabi and a gallon-sized Ziplock bag of cherry tomatoes for quince jelly.
Photo Source: Christa Porter
Our home was next to a bike lane. It took eight minutes to pedal to the heart of downtown; twenty-four minutes by foot. We could access I-5 in three minutes by car, yet it was quiet enough at night to hear boxcars clanking in the junction.
In the darkness of the backyard you could smell low tide and the earthy scent of damp wood pulp rising from the flats.
Photo Source: John Fischer Photography
My family walked to Ray’s on Broadway and sat on red picnic benches, eating crisp veggie burgers you could believe in. Across the street a red neon Rainier sign burned in the window of the Blue Moon Tavern. Karaoke stars laughed loudly on the patio behind the Blue Moon, taking down some ciggies with their brewskies.
Houses in our neighborhood were built as part of the Victory Project, a program designed to house dock workers during WW2. Rows of cute single-family ramblers with shuttered windows. Green lawns at right angles.
North Everett generally (and Delta specifically) feels like one of the last places in the Seattle metro region where the American Dream is still available. Here you can have a decent home on a piece of land with a view and not be house-poor. The residential neighborhoods are built on a walk-able, livable scale.
This is what I want to explain to people when they ask why Everett.
Photo Source: Everett Rowing Association
I want to tell them that you can live in a house that’s the price of a single-bedroom Seattle condo. That you can see Possession Sound on one side of the peninsula and snow-capped Pilchuck on the other. That here you can be absolutely yourself at all times, because there’s enough social margin to accommodate unique personalities.
I want to explain that Everett is a city that feels a little wild, a little sunken in maritime moss and fog.
It’s a city that affords a degree of urban anonymity, yet you still bump into people you know downtown.
It’s easy to get if you live here.
Richard Porter is a social worker and musician. He lives in North Everett and enjoys running on Marine View Drive, bicycling down tree-lined streets, and trying to coax vegetables out of his yard.
How about you? Why Everett? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel to comment or if you're feeling long winded you can always shoot us an email. Maybe we'll even share your thoughts on the blog.
